Squiz Kids has launched an updated version of Newshounds – its free media literacy program for primary school kids – with new features, a streamlined user-experience and new content on artificial intelligence.
The announcement was made during Media Literacy Week (24-31 October), an annual global initiative to combat the spread of spin, misinformation and ‘fake news’ around the world.
With more than 3,500 Australian classrooms signed up to Newshounds, Squiz Kids said it has responded to the popularity of the resource by launching a new version that’s easier to use and features updated content on mis- and disinformation.
“We launched a Newshounds pilot just over eighteen months ago, to see if there might be an appetite among Australian parents and educators for a free resource that teaches kids to spot misinformation when they come across it online,” Newshounds co-creator Mr Bryce Corbett said.
“With more than 3,500 classrooms signing up, the response was an emphatic ‘yes’. So we’ve recalibrated, reinvested, consulted with teachers and come up with a new improved version of Newshounds to ensure we are doing a better job of making critical media consumers of the next generation.”
Updates to the Newshounds program include:
- New lessons to tackle the rise of deepfakes and AI-generated content;
- Improved user-interface with greater functionality;
- Teacher-friendly features to make it easier for educators to integrate in their lessons;
- An updated curriculum-mapping tool;
- A new virtual game board and tools for the resource’s protagonist, Squiz-E the Newshound;
- New videos – specially-formulated for the classroom environment.
- New classroom workbook and comprehensive teacher manual.
- Updated graphics and gamified environment to increase student engagement.
“In its short existence, Newshounds has become the premier media literacy tool for primary school students around the country” Mr Corbett said.
“Thanks to seed funding from the Google News Initiative we were able to test the concept of a classroom tool that helps kids learn to tell online fact from fiction. This new version takes all the lessons we learned from the pilot – including from our teacher brains trust – and packages them up in a fresh, easy-to-use online program that any educator anywhere can seamlessly integrate into their lessons.”
Newshounds now comprises nine sessions, with each one mapped to the Australian curriculum and built using the ‘guided release’ educational model. A teacher-designed classroom workbook for students is complemented by a comprehensive teacher manual, which its creators say “makes instant media literacy experts of every teacher”.
“Newshounds has been devised by Squiz Kids’ resident, fully-qualified primary school teacher in collaboration with its team of journalists, and has been refined in consultation with a brains trust of educators drawn from Newshounds highly-engaged teacher base comprising teachers from NSW, Victoria and Queensland,” Mr Corbett said.
“We couldn’t be more proud of the resource we’ve created, or more excited at the enthusiasm with which it’s been embraced by teachers around the nation.”
Squiz Kids is Australia’s premier daily news podcast for kids – listened to by more than 160,000 Australian kids and their families every month – including in some 5,000 classrooms around the country.
For more information about Newshounds, visit www.squizkids.com.au.
